Yesterday Sandy Salmon became the first Republican to announce in Iowa House district 63, which covers all of Bremer County and some rural areas in northern Black Hawk County. A district map and background on Salmon as well as her Democratic opponent are after the jump.
Salmon lives in Janesville, a town with a population under 1,000. This short bio first appeared in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier:
College: graduated from UNI in 1977 with a business management degree
Career: retired 18-year veteran home educator, schooling her three sons through high school with the last graduating in 2007. She helped run an area homeschool cooperative providing group educational activities for kids such as gym, choir, drama and speech. She co-manages the family farm near Kingsley in northwest Iowa. In addition, Salmon served as a supply officer with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1977 to 1980.
Boards: served as a 4-H leader for 14 years in Black Hawk County and is involved with her church and Farm Bureau.
Family: Husband, Matt, and three sons.
Salmon ran for Iowa House district 18 in 2010 but finished second in a three-way GOP primary. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other Republicans join the field in the new House district 63. As of April 2011, the district contained 5,225 registered Democrats, 6,395 registered Republicans and 9,128 no-party voters.
It sounds as if Salmon doesn’t have a particular signature issue that compelled her to run for the House. Her campaign’s first statement hit a lot of standard Republican talking points:
In her announcement, Salmon said she is a conservative and wants to create new jobs in the state by cutting taxes and government regulations. She supports a balanced budget, greater local control of schools and expanding education choices. She also wants Iowa voters to weigh in on gay marriage.
Former State Senator Bill Heckroth announced in May that he will be the Democratic candidate in the new House district 63. Almost all of this district was part of the old Senate district 9, which Heckroth represented from 2007 through 2010. He has lived in Waverly, the county seat of Bremer, since 1987. With a population around 9,000, Waverly is by far the largest town in House district 63.
2 Comments
Social conservatism strikes again
In most years we would want someone as conservative as Mrs. Salmon to be the nominee, but after what happened to Scott Ourth and Geri Huser last year I think we should root for a more moderate alternative just to be on the safe side…
Bill Heckroth is as good as they come and if the voters reject him again, they are making a huge mistake.
I will say that Salmon’s resume is impressive, it may be her need to push her faith into the public debate that scares me off of course, to be clear.
moderateiadem Thu 13 Oct 1:09 PM
Sandy Salmon
I fail to see anything “impressive” in Salmon’s resume. She works for missions to Uganda–an African nation that is among the most intolerant states on that continent, where wars over religion are exceeded only by battles over sex and military matters.
Salmon claims she was an “educator” for 18 years–her three sons whom she lauds in her official Iowa Republican Legislator’s biography she says graduated with honors–but fails to mention any of the schools. If they came from stellar institutions such as Yale, Harvard, U of I, etc. then why are they not named to demonstrate her mastery of education–but she took her degree in 1977 in Business Administration, which back then, was not a premier school at UNI.
Salmon, a former Marine, is opposed to the right of any woman determining the fate of her own body. She argues that the state has a higher priority than the woman when she signed on as the token female to HF 171 with Tom Shaw and seven others. I fail to see her as fit for any office, including the Blackhawk County Republican Women’s club.
dr-arthur-frederick-ide Tue 5 Mar 7:37 PM